Lupe Fiasco spent much of Tuesday night’s show at Oakland’s Fox Theater atop a small raised platform at center stage. There he stood, or danced or pranced, literally head and shoulders above all the other musicians.

The scene served as a metaphor for this 29-year-old Chicago rapper’s overall ability as a live performer. For in the land of hip-hop, no one stands taller onstage than Fiasco.

That’s certainly no secret in these parts. Local fans have been privy to that information since at least 2007, when Fiasco delivered a thrilling 2-hour show at San Francisco’s Fillmore. It was further underscored in 2008 during Kanye West’s major Glow in the Dark Tour, when the opener completely upstaged the headliner (who is also no slouch in concert).

Now touring in support of his third studio album, the chart-topping “Lasers,” Fiasco has upped his game in concert. This production is, by far, Fiasco’s most ambitious to date, an arena-worthy spectacle shoehorned into relatively intimate theaters. It features a five-piece band and three backing vocalists, allowing for expanded arrangements of the songs, as well as a cool stage set designed around a huge “A,” like the one seen on the cover of “Lasers.”

All of that might’ve backfired on Fiasco and formed an unwanted buffer between the crowd and the performer’s greatest strengths (his lyrical flow, his stage charisma and his energy level). Yet, his megawatt star power managed to shine right through during the 100-minute show.

He came out of the gate like a thoroughbred, opening with a triumphant version of the new album’s “Words I Never Said,” and kept right on racing through the first four songs. It was like he was following some as-seen-on-TV workout DVD, only played on fast forward, as he shadowboxed, marched and jumped along to the chest-rattling beats, stopping occasionally to mug for the cell phones like a prize fighter who had just scored a knockout.

Dressed casually in all black — wearing a simple T-shirt that he’d remove by show’s end — Fiasco seemed to be going for that elusive dance-club feel early on. The songs were fueled by big block-rocking bass and built toward Binky-biting crescendos. The most rave worthy of the bunch was the richly colorful “Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom),” the N.E.R.D.-led cut from 2008 that featured Fiasco on guest vocals.

The vibe turned with the fifth tune, “Go Go Gadget Flow” (from the 2007 sophomore release “Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool”), as the vocals became more prominent in the mix. His rhymes rolled with such precision and purpose as he coaxed out a gorgeous version of “Coming Up,” a midtempo gem from the new album, and his flow beat as steadily as a metronome on “Till I Get There” (also from “Lasers”).

He made sure to include most of the old favorites, such as “Touch the Sky” (the 2006 Kanye West track that helped launch Fiasco’s career) and “Kick, Push,” the first single from his 2006 debut, “Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor.” And he certainly didn’t forget the new album’s “The Show Goes On,” a double-platinum smash that ranks as Fiasco’s most successful single to date.

Fiasco also took the time to talk politics, specifically showing his support for the Occupy Oakland protests going on, and to address social concerns such as feeding the homeless. He then gave shout outs to some Bay Area hip-hop royalty, including Too Short and the late-great Mac Dre. And, most impressively, he didn’t overlook Spice 1, freestyling his way through the Hayward gangsta-rap icon’s “187 Proof.”

Yet, the best moment of the night came during the crowd favorite “Hip Hop Saved My Life.” It was a superb moment for people watching, with fans passionately singing along as if, indeed, hip-hop had saved their lives.

Jim Harrington is the pop music critic for the Bay Area News Group. He began writing about the Bay Area music scene in 1992 and became the full-time pop music critic for the organization's Oakland Tribune in 2006. He is a South Bay native and graduate of San Francisco State University.

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